Loch Ness and the surrounding area are on the brink of a boom time due to the number of films being shot there, it has been predicted.

Willie Cameron, a location manager, said the past 10 days had been among the busiest in recent years.

Scottish Highlands and Islands Film Commission said there had been a gradual rise in inquiries about the loch from the film industry.

The figure has grown from about 30 to 200 in the last seven years.

Recent films to draw inspiration from the water’s mythical monster include made-for-TV horror Beyond Loch Ness.

Produced by Canada’s Insight Film Studios, it follows a cryptozoologist’s hunt for man-eating Nessie years after it killed his father during an ill-fated trip on Loch Ness.

A promotional stunt to launch a DVD for a more mainstream film – The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep – was one of a series of events involving the Highlands loch in the last 10 days.

The film itself was shot mostly in New Zealand, but Mr Cameron said the local area still benefits from any spin-offs from features that even just mention the loch, or its monster.

The Visit Loch Ness location manager said: “I think we’re going back to a boom time again.

“Loch Ness goes through a period of popularity and then there is a little dip, but we’re in a high interest period just now.”

He added: “In the last 10 days we’ve had the promotion of the Water Horse DVD, a fashion shoot for a German executive clothing magazine and contestants in a German reality TV show came here to collect water from Loch Ness.

“A documentary has been shot on the geology of Loch Ness and we are expecting another one to be done on the geology of the Great Glen.”

[via]

Other articles you may be interested in: